grunt_GI

Now that I am playing WWII where the US does not always have artillery firepower dominance, I have been on the receiving end of some pretty intense barrages. (Now I know why the majority of US Army casualties came from German artillery and mortar fire..wowza)... So, what is the best tactic to minimize casualties...take cover in buildings? Those some to be artillery magnets...Seek shelter in the tree lines? That doesn't seem to work either all the time. OR, do I just have to ride it out and carry on. I mean I have had whole squads wiped out before I even spotted the bad guys....ouch. This is equally true of CMRT...damn those Russkis love their artillery.....

Can't wait to have some CMBS QB between US and RUS...WOLVERINES!!!

Well, I have to say, other than the current kerfuffle over OS 10.9, that the thing I totally HATED in CMSF was the QB system...The absolutely bizarre choice of units the AI made for you really turned me off. I end up starting 10 QB to get 5-6 that make sense from a units perspective (as far as my blue force units, no idea what red force got) and then I save those to play later. Thank goodness this problem was solved in CMBN...totally LOVE the QB system in that game and its successors...I play a LOT of QBs...it was my favorite feature since CMx1 and that is the big reason I hope...someday....BFC updates CMSF to the 3.0 engine.. Cheers,

So, I did some more testing..and IF Apple would ever actually update their NVIDIA drivers (which apparently was not done in 10.9.4) I think this problem would be fixed. However, for CMSF, I now have almost full QB functionality back...I can play up to Large QB for everything except Meeting Engagements (weird huh?) Of course, I still have to deal with the bizarre unit selection (nothing changed there) but it's coming along....would be great to have every CM game updated to 3.0...but it is what it is... Meanwhile...back to Normandy...

Ok, just downloaded the big map...can't wait to see the smaller versions for more QB MOUT awesomeness....

OK....my first spotting report with 10.9.4...and as Buzz foretold...not much improvement. As expected, the 3.0 engine still rocks. CMBN still runs about like it did...some scenarios still crash at 36% as do a couple of large scenarios, but probably 85-90% works ok (that's a very unscientific guesstimate) CMSF does a little better with the QB as long as you choose tiny or small. I think a couple more scenarios loaded. SIGHH...I saw a teaser web post that NVIDIA put out their own drivers for 10.9.3. Anyone take them for a spin? http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/75452/en-us I sure wish this would get resolved.........before CMBS....

Wow..fantastic. Would love to see heavy urban combat.

So, here's a weird one...playing around with the QB again...found out that selecting a MEETING ENGAGMENT dumps you back to the menu...also choosing anything but TINY or SMALL battles hangs at 36%....BUT it appears that choosing TINY or SMALL battles for PROBE, ATTACK or ASSAULT seems to work...I tried with US Army, USMC, and Germans and it loaded just fine... That OpenGL bug is so strangely random..... Still no luck with most user created scenarios...

From Appleinsider yesterday: "The latest OS X 10.9.4 Mavericks build 13E16 comes two weeks after the first beta was released at the end of May. Mirroring the OS X 10.9.3 betas, Apple asks developers to focus on Graphics Drivers and Safari, but adds in extra areas of interest in Bluetooth, Audio Drivers, Finder and the App Store." Hopefully they paid attention to your input on OpenGL...or as we used to say in my squadron "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Would be great if they could finally fix this problem.

YES!!! I completely agree....

So, as I anxiously await this game...along with the CM community, I came across this interesting tidbit about how the Russians waged their Sitzkreig in Crimea and Ukraine: http://www.naa.mil.lv/~/media/NAA/AZPC/Publikacijas/PP%2002-2014.ashx Fascinating and insightful read from the Latvians...whoda thunk? But if anyone thinks the Russians don't have strategic sophistication...think again...this is scary stuff, and you know the Baltic states are gettin' nervous at the hungry Russian bear...I'm not sure if their army tactically is any better than they were against Georgia in 2008, but strategically, they are probably better than our military/industrial complex...at least in their own backyard. Cheers

So, as I download my first scenarios, it's clear that the designers do their homework. Since my World War II study has been almost exclusively American, with a smattering of British and German action...what are the best books on the latter part of the Eastern Front. My experience is that most histories go up to Kursk and then drop off...probably because Italy and soon France took over most of the attention. I have the Ziemke books published a long time ago by the Army's Center of Military History, but was hoping for a recent, fairly unbiased account of the 1943-1944 Russian Front. My current reading on this conflict is David Glantz 4 gigantic volumes on Stalingrad....great stuff...but even as the Dean of the Russian Front, he has barely made it past Kursk with his books....at least as far as I can tell. Bagration was clearly as big as Normandy..so what's the best book to start with? Thanks...I need more books for my library....

Heh, good soldier indeed! I waited a long time for a new iMac...figured I would git-er-done and keep BFC in beer money for a while...really looking forward to CMBS. So is CMFI better, different or both from CMBN? The chance to replay Arnhem was just too much to pass up. WW 2 airborne history is a particular interest for me. It was a toss up between CMFI and CMRT. But In the end King Tiger tanks and the prospect of huge urban battles won out.. What is your opinion of CMFI?

Hi Buzz...I took the PLUNGE and bought CMSF, the CMBN combo pack with all the goodies and CMRT. Had a blast last night finishing the tutorial on CMBN and giving a QB a test drive. It was awesome. CMRT is next....Although the CMSF thing is a tad annoying, what really bugs me is no QB, as my attention span is short (as is my free time these days) so I love a 45 minute game. However, I have plenty of CM goodness and this weekend will have the time to drive around the CMRT tutorial and try that QB system. I am confident when push comes to shove CMSF will get fixed, hopefully with the 3.0 engine (with new QB!!!!) and CMSF will be like a whole new game. In the mean time that Garden of the Iron Cross upload is starting to whisper my name.

So, Phil/Buzz, Have either of you been able to test the 10.9.4 beta or the 10.10 beta to see what happens with the 36% issue? I am neither tech savvy or brave enough to do beta testing, but hopeful that one of those will fix the problem. In the meantime, I figure at least 10-12 scenarios load in CMSF and 3-4 campaigns, more than enough for my computer ADHD and ability to carve 45 minutes out of my day...so that should last me for a few more months. OR, if need be, I would be happy to test a hotfix for CMSF if you need one. ") I feel brave enough for that. Just sayin'

We use a piece of OpenGL that a lot of folks probably don't, and we use it hard. It should work; it's part of the core OpenGL specification. Apple broke it. I'm not sure what the "theory" in question is supposed to be, but I know precisely what's broken, and I know precisely who broke it and when, and in neither case is it anything remotely like our fault. So: Apple broke a core piece of OpenGL, apparently didn't test for it, and shipped it. They've known about it since January, when I first reported it, and have released at least a couple dozen OS seeds since then, so apparently they have no immediate plans to fix it. We created a workaround for the issue as soon as we discovered it, and will be shipping it in every game we release a patch for, until it's no longer needed. Which party is the problem again? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SO, does this mean that we might see a patch for CMSF? I was hoping you guys would take the initiative and fix it...maybe with a HOTFIX...I am really eager to try the Wanat scenario..and the Twilight 2K campaign That would be awesome...

Well, clearly the best thing for everyone would be to just bring all the CM games up to the 3.0 engine. However, I know that is easier said than done. I have chugged through more CMSF campaigns and scenarios. For the "most" part the US Army, USMC stuff loads the best. Some of the British stuff loads and I have have had minimal luck loading ANY NATO scenarios or campaigns...(kinda like real life, the Canadian campaign loads, but the Dutch and German do not). What I am more irritated by is that even the basic QB functionality appears to be gone....zip, nada. Although QB in CMSF were hit or miss anyway with the bizarre unit purchases the AI made, it would have been nice to have some functionality. I was hoping to try some basic scenario construction, but figure what's the point if mine won't load. I still have not gotten ANY user made scenarios to load. Will keep trying. While I also wish BFC would fix this independent of what Apple does since I figure they will be most interested in solving it, I also know that Apple has kinda screwed them over in the past with graphics issues. Silver lining I guess, if CMBS is based on 3.0 engine, then there should be no hiccups with it. Not much of a silver lining, I know, but a little one.

So, more weirdness...my QB is all FUBAR. I can't launch any battle Medium or larger (it dumps me back to the main menu)..on Tiny or Small it launches about 50%... SIGHHH, I guess I will play whatever works...I am really looking forward to a real OS X upgrade that will fix this.

So, my observation is similar. SOME user created stuff seems to work (The SEARCH FOR A GHOST and TF PANTHER CAMPAIGNS) but two or three of user scenarios I tried did not. My unscientific testing showed that some user scenarios smaller than 700K had the best chance of loading...anything larger than that crashed. Haven't tried any quick battles yet, but assume the same holds...large QB are likely to crash. I am going to play with my graphics settings tonight some more (turn them down) to see what that does. I can live with less eye candy for a while if more stuff loads. Looking forward to Apple finally fixing this.... OR better yet CMBS.....

Thanks...I dug out my ol' CMSF manual...halt, cancel, evade...I assume those three functions are still the same across all the games...

Ok, dumb question, I have downloaded and am driving around the CMBN, CMFI and CMRT demos. Also flipping through manuals. For the life of me, I can't find what EXACTLY the three special purpose buttons do in the command panel next to the Movement/Combat/Special/Admin buttons...Do these have the same functions they did under CMSF? This seems to be either a small oversight in the manual or I am just getting slow...

wooohooo thanks Buzz...appreciate your time to test all these

So Buzz...just to be clear does CMSF run at ALL on 10.9.3 on your MBP? Your earlier posts seemed to indicate it wouldn't run at all? OR is it just the large/huge scenario problem you encountered on CMBN? Thanks

So Buzz, Now that OS 10.9.3 is OFFICIALLY out...does it fix the video issues with large scenarios? AND CMSF?

Well, having lived through the great QuickDraw Rave debacle of the OS 9 era, I hope BFC will not let apple muck things up again.... In the meantime, I guess I will reboot my old MacBook Pro into XP and fire up my PC copy of CMSF. And even my ol copies of CMBO, CMBB and CMAK....yup bought them all in PC after apple screwed the pooch. Argh... Cheers...I will keep checking into the forum.